Rank Group fined £500,000 by regulator

An investigation by the Gambling Commission has led to the Rank Group being fined £500,000 for failing to protect a customer who had a gambling problem.

The customer who had self-excluded, was visited at home by a manager of Grosvenor Casino during this period, as part of his networking visits, which goes against the rules.

This resulted in the customer losing the staggering amount of £1m in a 24 hour period.

Richard Watson, executive director of the Gambling Commission, said: “No matter how wealthy customers are, operators still need to monitor them effectively to ensure they aren’t showing signs of problem gambling. It is certainly not appropriate to visit customers during a period when they are self-excluded.”

He added: “This penalty package would have been a lot higher were it not for the positive action Rank took in terms of self-reporting their failures and being open and transparent during our investigation.”

A spokesperson for Rank said: “We accept that our responsible gambling processes and controls were insufficient regarding this isolated case concerning a high value customer.

“Since this incident, we have worked hard to improve our processes and controls to avoid such a scenario reoccurring.”